Original link: http://www.wickedlocal.com/bolton/news/x825435275/Bolton-chess-master-plays-a-game-for-all-ages

Bolton —

When it comes to the game of chess, Imre Toth of Bolton, has been a “pied piper,” of sorts. For more than 30 years, he has served as the Master of Postal Chess for a band of young players – armed with boards, rooks, kings and queens – eager to learn a game that many adults approach with some trepidation.

“I like seeing their growth in strategic thinking and love the lessons in sportsmanship taught through chess,” said Jenny Jacobsen, whose son, Henry, and daughter, Sofia, are members of the Nashoba Chess Club, which Toth started in 1980.

“I love everything about chess club,” said 8-year-old Sofia.

“Going to the chess club on Fridays has became our family tradition and it will, no doubt, be part of wonderful childhood memories for Max and Winston,” said Qi Jiang, whose sons have excelled at the game.

“Dr. Toth is gifted in his ability to teach children of any age,” said Stacia Downey. “Our first-grade son started chess club in kindergarten. He has learned so much from Dr. Toth in just one year; first the basics, then strategies and most importantly, a love for the game.”

The Nashoba Chess Club meets at Nashoba Regional High School on various Friday nights through March. Toth, a ‘mostly’ retired physician, recently talked with the Common about his love of the game and desire to inspire kids.

I watched chess games with fascination in the dining room at the science institute in Tihany, Hungary, where I lived until age 7. I played occasional, casual chess with friends or my father beginning at age 7. I started playing seriously in high school in Uppsala, Sweden. My father stopped playing me when I started playing competitively, and used to boast that he won the last game between us.

What got you hooked on the game?

The mixture of reason, logic, discipline, imagination, beauty, competition, and sportsmanship. It’s a sport of the brain. It stimulates deep thought.

When did you start teaching kids chess?

My kids and their cousins were interested in chess, so I taught them when they were in kindergarten through elementary school. I thought other kids might enjoy chess too, and I started the chess club at Emerson Elementary School in 1980. The chess club at Nashoba had ceased to exist, so when the kids from the Emerson chess club started to move up to Nashoba in 1983, I revived the Nashoba Regional High School Chess Club. For a few years, there were chess clubs at both school, as well as a separate club in Lancaster. The three merged, I think in 1985, and the chess club has operated on Friday evenings ever since.

Chess - Stephen Dann

Vadim Martirosov as black in 2011 found a great move to win against Neil Cousin in today's position. Do you see how? Answer below.
» Enlarge photo

GM Max Dlugy was interviewed Thursday on www.chessbase.com to possibly break open the year-old cheating scandal in Croatia. In short, the ease of putting a small computer device in your shoe is called "low tech," but will this solve all kinds of other issues "underfoot?"

National Chess Week starts with a bang tomorrow, as www.pbs.org/pov/brooklyncastle runs the 90-minute movie on I.S.318 in New York City. Time at most New England PBS stations is 10 p.m. The trailer is on the website, and the movie will be on demand until Nov. 6. There will be a live online program for educators Tuesday offering tips on forming chess groups at schools, which may also be of interest to librarians and to parents across the country.

In Massachusetts, programs on Saturday, traditional National Chess Day, are not overflowing on www.masschess.org, but there is a Game/30 tournament to benefit Boston's One Fund at NESA in Westwood, a free scholastic event at the Stoughton Public Library, and both a rated Open and two unrated scholastic sections at Blackstone Valley Prep. School in Cumberland, R.I.

During the week, however, there are plenty more free and low-cost events, like Tuesday's 5 p.m. Larry Christiansen simultaneous display at the South Station concourse in Boston. Many clubs are starting new monthly events, both rated and unrated. Also check at www.uschess.org to view upcoming events as well as rating reports within hours after many tournaments end.

Visit www.wachusettchess.org, to view results of the Yedidia Open, where Bruce Felton of Fitchburg took first in a 37-player field at Fitchburg State University. At www.chesspals.com, see how John Curdo of Auburn won the September Chess Snippet, and Peter Shtudier and Marc Quevillon shared first in the Snippy September Under 1700 at the Greater Worcester Chess Club.

Local master Cliff McLaughlin came out of retirement to tie with John Curdo and Matt Meredith of Connecticut at the 30-player 6th WMCA Memorial in Holyoke. Last weekend also saw a 26-player round robin Blitzfest in Manchester, N.H., with Vadim Martirosov of Allston winning at 22.5-2.5, drawing with Braden Bournival of New Hampshire, who came a close second.

At www.uschessleague.com, New England defeated New Jersey, to now lead the Northeast Division, 5-1, with just four rounds to go. Boston drew New York and Connecticut lost to Manhattan. On Tuesday (at www.chess.com) more rival conference action, as New England takes on Los Angeles, Boston faces San Francisco, and Connecticut meets Arizona in round 7.

Chess.com, claiming 8 million online members, has made an agreement to purchase www.chessvibes.com a top chess news site in Europe.

Answer to quiz: Black won easily after 1. ... QxR, 2. QxQ d2 and the pawn cannot be stopped. Position from new second e-book at www.tacticstime.com.

The Executive Board has authorized a promotional membership offer for returning USCF members.

From now through November 8th, 2013, former members whose USCF membership has lapsed for at least two years may purchase a one-year premium Adult membership for $33.

This promotional membership is available through the TD/Affiliate Support Area, but there is no affiliate commission on this membership. This offer is only available through affiliates, it is NOT available through the USCF membership webstore.

Tiffany WangMACA Webmaster

09/15/2013:
Prize winners, 1st Spiegel Cup Qualifier

Prize winners at the 1st Barry S. Spiegel Cup Qualifier, held September 15th in Marlborough, Mass.

The US Chess Federation (USCF) will be changing the cutoff day to get rated games included in a monthly Supplement to the third Wednesday of the month. This will be effective with the October supplement, which means that the upcoming cutoff date is going to be 18 September 2013. One of the main reasons for this is balancing the operational workload of our servers. [Currently we do a ‘re-rate’ beginning on the Tuesday before the Supplement ratings are computed. Then, almost immediately, we need to do another re-rate for the Supplement’s ratings. By changing from a Friday cutoff to a Wednesday one we will be able to eliminate the second re-rate. Overall, this change will not make the Supplement any later or earlier in the month – the cutoff date will still be between the 15th and the 21st [inclusively].

The Wednesday cutoff still gives three days for the previous weekend’s events to get rated and make the upcoming supplement. [Most events are submitted online within 1-2 days of their end date.] Updated ratings for players should be available by late Thursday morning instead of sometime on Saturday. The Supplement files, themselves, should be out by the close of business on Monday. [We expect that, for the most part, they will be ready before the weekend.]

Again, the cutoff is 11:45 PM Central Time on the third Wednesday of the month. This means that an event needs to be submitted AND rated by this time to be included in the upcoming month’s Supplement.

The SCS is a proposal that the MACA scholastic committee is likely to implement this year. It is effectively changing our 4-6 system [4 Q winners and 6 invited by rating] to 4-5-1, whereby the 6th highest rating invitation is replaced w/ an invitee ["wildcard"] who has scored the most total points in a combination of the four qualifiers and additional scholastic events organized by maca affiliates which are designated in advance as SCS events. There may be one or more of these, held between 1 September 2013 and 3 January 2014.

Steve FrymerMACA Board Member

09/6/2013:
Spiegel Cup

The first qualifier is scheduled for 15 September 2013 in Marlborough.

I am currently compiling lists of the highest rated players in each category. [Age determination as of 31 December 2013]

I need your help in determining who else may be eligible for inclusion on the lists.

The Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Leominster, site of the 73rd New England Open, is changing its name to Doubletree by Hilton. The location and phone number are unchanged; just the name is changing.

Bob MessengerChief TD

08/13/2013:
Summer 2013 Chess Horizons RELEASED!

It is with great pleasure that MACA announces today the long, long awaited return of its award winning state chess
assocation publication, Chess Horizons.

After more than a year in hiatus a new editorial team, comprised of both veterans and new blood, was put together
and set to work.Today the result is released.

"Today features the regeneration of Chess Horizons," says its new editor, Doc Kinne. "This first issue is a bit rough
because we were picking up the pieces after such a long time. I hope people like that we're back, and I can tell
you that you can expect better things as the team gets used to this new beast."

"I want to especially thank Chess Horizon's last editor, Bob Messenger," Kinne continued, "who I refer to as 'the
hardest working person in New England Chess.' It was because he was so snowed under that Chess Horizons
had to be regenerated. Bob remains on the team and was invaluable in providing continuity for the reboot. Also
staying with the team, thankfully, is Max Sewell as Layout Editor. Max is who makes Chess Horizons look good!
I'm particularly thrilled that we're now featuring full color photos in our electronic edition. If this issue has any
legs, its not due to me, but due to my team, who are the best! The Summer issue is out and the team is diving
right back in to produce the Fall issue in late September. We're back Massachusetts!"

The print edition has been sent to the printers and should start appearing in mailboxes next week.

Doc KinneMACA Correspondent

08/2/2013:
National Scholastic Winners Make MA Proud!

As we speak the US Open is taking place and the National Scholastic Tournaments - the High School Denker Tournament, the K-8 Barber Championship, and the new National Girls Invitational Tournament have all ended. The participants sent from MA did the Commonwealth proud.

Michelle Chen gained 3rd Place in the first National Girls Invitational Tournament, and also garnered that competition's Best Game Prize.

The Barber K-8 Championship was won By MA's Andrew Liu. While first place was shared by Andrew Tang of Minnesota, and Vignesh Panchanatham & Craig Hilby of California, Andrew was declared the winner on tie-breaks.

Congratulations to all the MA winners and participants of the National Scholastic Tournaments this year. Your fellow chess players are proud of you!

Doc KinneMACA Correspondent

07/18/2013:
82nd Massachusetts Open Most Interesting Game Prize Winners Announced

Game judge FM John Curdo has announced the winners of the Most Interesting Game prizes at the 82nd Massachusetts Open:

Championship Section: IM David Vigorito, for his game against IM Jonathan Yedidia.

Under 2100 Section: Stephen Brudno, for his game against Stefan Trandafir.

Under 1800 Section: Alan Sikarov, for his game against Robert Babcock.

Under 1500 Section: Michael Stevens, for his game against Raymond Behenna.

In addition, FM John Curdo and IM David Vigorito have been awarded a special prize for their drawn game in the

Championship Section.

Money for the prizes was donated by MACA life member Walter Champion.

Bob MessengerChief TD

07/1/2013:
Youngest female Expert in USA!

At Saturday's Boylston CC event Carissa Yip of Chelmsford went 2.5-1.5 and reached the Expert level at age 9, the youngest girl to achieve this level since the USCF began electronic record-keeping in 1991.

The Boston Parks & Recreation Department has announced that the Alvan Kittredge Park in Roxbury will play host to a number of free chess sessions, as part of the department's "Knights in the Park" program. On Mondays, July 8 and July 15, from 6 to 7 p.m., the free program will be held at the park opposite 10 Linwood St. Everyone from beginners to experienced players are encouraged to attend. Mike Howell, a USCF-rated member of the Billerica Chess Club, will be on hand to offer tips and tricks.

An additional session will be held at the Gertrude Howes Playground, located at 68 Moreland St. in Roxbury, on Tuesday, July 16, from 6 to 7 p.m. For more information, call the parks department at 617-635-4505 or visit www.cityofboston.gov/parks/.

Kibitz a scholastic match and play blitz afterwards. Blitz for juniors.

Two scholastic chess matches are going between "Boston" and "North Shore" teams. Captain of Boston is Dmitry Barash, captain of North Shore is Michail Perelshteyn.
The first match held in Lynn on 5.19 was won by Boston 6:4. The second match will be on 6.23 in Makor Center at 10:30am - 12:30pm. If you are interested in playing free blitz after the match (12:30pm - 2:30pm), please contact Dmitry Barash 617 256-5536.
Site in Brighton Mass on Commonwealth Av. Call for directions.

Dima

Steve FrymerMACA Correspondent

06/17/2013:
Expiration date extension for Chess Horizons subscribers

To compensate Chess Horizons subscribers and MACA members receiving Chess Horizons for missed issues, MACA has extended their expiration dates so that they will receive four issues of Chess Horizons for each year of dues. The last issue that was published was the November-May 2011-12 double issue, which was published in May 2012 and counted as October-December 2011 and January-March 2012. The issues missed would have been: June 2012 (counting as April-June 2012), July-September 2012, October-December 2012, January-March 2013, and April-June 2013. Our new editor, Richard "Doc" Kinne, expects to publish the next issue, to be called Summer 2013, this month. In terms of the old naming system it will count as July-September 2013.

The new expiration dates are posted in the Membership section of the MACA website.

Bob Messenger

MACA Membership Secretary and Treasurer

Bob MessengerMACA Board Member

06/7/2013:
2013 Hurvitz Cup Photos Download

I have uploaded all 2013 Hurvitz Cup chess photos (high resolutions) on Zenfolio. To download the photos for free click the link here: http://tiffanywang.zenfolio.com/2013_hurvitz, find the photo(s) you like and click "Download" --> "Original".

You can also order print version directly from the webpage. (The fee for print version is charged by the printing company, I do not make any profit from it.)

Tiffany WangMACA Webmaster

05/27/2013:
Prize Winners, 82nd Massachusetts Open

Prize winners at the 82nd Massachusetts Open, held May 25-27 in Marlborough.

The top Massachusetts resident or student in each section of the main tournament is the state champion for that rating category. Tied players are co-champions.

Players in the scholastic sections are listed in tiebreak order.

The tournament was directed by Bob Messenger, George Mirijanian and Steve Frymer.

Bob MessengerChief TD

05/27/2013:
2013 MACA ELECTION RESULTS

A total of 788 ballots were issued by mail for the 2013-2014 MACA election. From that total, 113 ballots were returned by the deadline of Saturday noon, May 25, 2013, when ballots were counted by members of the MACA Elections Commission (Stephen Dann, Walter Driscoll and George Mirijanian) and various tellers, including Percy Yip, Donna Alarie, David W. Martin and others.

The annual meeting of the Massachusetts Chess Association will be held Monday, May 27 at 9:00 a.m. at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough, site of the 82nd Massachusetts Open.

Bob MessengerChief TD

05/9/2013:
Chess Horizons Under New Management

Chess Horizons is an award-winning, decades-long MA chess publication. It has been beleaguered of late. Its largest problem has been staying on any sort of schedule. This was because the former editor was Bob Messenger, whom I like to call "The Hardest Working Man in New England Chess." Putting "Editor" into the mix just proved too much. Sometimes there are are just not enough hours.

And so, Chess Horizons was put under new management last month. No committees. No searches. Just one person (or hopefully as you'll see, a small group of persons) in our community taking the reigns and moving forward. "Decisions are made by those who show up," as President Jed Bartlett once said.

Let me introduce you to the new Chess Horizons team. We'll start at the top just to get the tension out of the way.

Editor - Doc Kinne. Yea, that's me. Why me? What experience do I have? Well, I've worked as a semiprofessional magazine writer before, largely in the writing and computer technology fields. About 20 years ago, for two years, I was editor and publisher for a small newsletter/magazine, doing both the editing and the layout. Yes, there has been a good bit of water under the bridge, but I've done something like this before. I'm also a member of the Chess Journalist of America, not that that means much right now.

Layout & Photography Editor - Max Sewell. Max has been integral in making Chess Horizons the award-winning publication it has been. In a visual medium like a magazine the layout is every bit as crucial as anything else. I'd be dumb not to retain him, and I look forward to working with him!

Publications Consultant - Bob Messenger. Wait? Wasn't the entire point to separate Chess Horizons and Bob? Well, not quite. As Publications Consultant Bob will be there to answer procedural questions and be able to supply a bridge from the old to the new as the new team gets going. I'm going to try to keep him from doing a lot, honestly, but I expect his role will be more important than even I can imagine right now.

Copy & Games Editor - Nathan Smolensky. Nathan is one of those competent people who showed up with ideas and an interest. His rating is now high enough (I actually entertained fantasies that I could beat Nathan a year ago!) that I very much trust him on games editing.

So, that's the team as it now stands. There is room, I think, for one or two more Copy Editors, and I'll entertain applications. I'd be looking for someone who has a strong computer and internet presence, can work with either Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer, and is prepared to give me deliverables. I'd like to see an Advertising Manager for Chess Horizons in the future, but first we need to get back on a regular schedule and hold that so that advertisers will want to advertise with us.

Oh! I was wrong! That's not the whole team. I left out, frankly, the most important person - hopefully you! You as writer! A magazine cannot exist without it getting input and this nicely ties in with my editorial philosophy - Chess Horizons, I hope, will be very much a grassroots publication. Your publication, in fact. The team above is just the assemblers. I need you and your news, views, and opinions.

Chess Horizons will be accepting and looking for completed articles submitted as ASCII text, Rich Text Format .rtf files, Microsoft Word .doc files, and LibreOffice Writer .odt files. Game scores will be solicited either in .txt or .pgn formats. Photographs can be submitted as .jpg, .pgn, or .gif formats.

I can see trying to organize a stable of writers, and will be contacting some of you with regard to this soon. Would you want to put Stringer for Chess Horizons on your resume? Maybe!

Finally, the schedule. Chess Horizons over the last several years has been so erratic in this department that I hope this will be its greatest change and improvement. The magazine will be going back to a quarterly schedule and will roughly be maintaining the same page count, based on submissions. I'm an astronomer in my real life, so in my mind a quarterly schedule means the Solstices and Equinoxes. Instead of a May-September (or whatever) issue, we'll be having Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter issues with release dates falling on our about the seasonal starting dates. Deadlines for submissions will be the first of the appropriate months: 1 March, 1 June, 1 September, 1 December.

So, that's our big news for now. Questions, comments, and submissions can come to "kinnerc @ gmail.com". I look forward to hearing from each of you!

Doc KinneMACA Correspondent

05/6/2013:
Election ballots have been mailed

MACA election ballots and Massachusetts Open tournament flyers were mailed Monday, May 6 from the Fitchburg Post Office. Nathan Smolensky, who is a candidate for MACA President, is also a candidate for MACA board Director, but his name was inadvertently omitted from the ballot. The MACA Elections Commission regrets this error.

The tournament directors were Bob Messenger, George Mirijanian and Steve Frymer.

Bob MessengerChief TD

04/20/2013:
New England Junior Open

The New England Junior Open, organized by Celestial Minds, was held Saturday, April 20th in Nashua, New Hampshire. Chief organizer Kavyashree Mallanna provided the following report:

Dear all

Thank you for attending Celestial Minds NE Junior Open Chess Championship-2013. Congratulations to all the Fifty Seven players who participated in this USCF rated event. We were happy to see players from ME, MA and NH states making the event more challenging; this gives upcoming players an opportunity to face tougher games.

K-5 Championship: Nithin Kavi tied for 2nd place with 6 points (5 wins and 2 draws), and was 7th according to tie-breaks. Jason Tang tied for 9th place with 5.5 points (5 wins and 1 draw), and was 14th according to tie-breaks.

K-5 under 900: Bharath Heggadahalli tied for 3rd place with 6 points (6 wins), and was 6th according to tie-breaks.

K-1 Championship: Eddie Yi Ming Wei tied for 3rd place with 6 points (6 wins), and was 10th according to tie-breaks

Webmaster note: Original data published by Steve Frymer on 4/7/2013. Bharath Heggadahalli's result added by MACA Webmaster on 4/16/2013.

Steve FrymerMACA Board Member

03/23/2013:
2013 BK Scholastic Grand Prix

After three events the current leaders are [total points and total events]:

MICHAEL YU 7 2

WINSTON W ZHAO 6 2

UTKARSH PANDEY 5 2

DEXTER LI KENNEDY 4.5 3

TOBY SHU 4 2

COLE PARKS 3.5 3

ABHINAV GOVINDARAJU 3 1

ARNON KUZMIN 3 1

MATTHEW LOOSE 3 1

UTKAL PANDEY 3 2

Steve FrymerMACA Board Member

03/10/2013:
LOST AND FOUND...Grade School Championships

i have a winter jacket, reddish-brown, left at the tournament today.

inquiries to steve frymer, sfrymer [at] rcn [dot] com, 781-862-3799.

Steve FrymerAssistant TD

03/10/2013:
Gus Gosselin Grade Championship prize winners

Prize winners at the Gus Gosselin Grade Championship, held March 10th 2013 at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough.

The ratings below are considered final for the February rating supplement. We now have our 10 finalists!

Spiegel Cup scheduled for 10 February 2013 at Embassy Suites Hotel in Marlborough. Round one scheduled for 9:30 am. Please arrive between 9 and 9:15 for announcements, and so we can begin on time.

The 7th player on the raing priority list is the 1st alternate. Please let me know if you are available to play if needed.

The High School championship and Denker Tournament of High School Champions [at US Open in Madison Wisconsin in August] qualifier is a 4SS open to any high school player in Massachusetts. The entry fee for the high school division is $20.